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possible to live with Alinor without quarreling, but they had always ended laughingor in making love. What had happened? Sir Peter's voice continued to drone on, and Ian caught enough of what he said to realize that his guesses about the man's intentions were close to right. He had been wrong only in believing Sir Peter disloyal to Alinor. Distracted as he was by wondering what was different in the quarrel after the tourney than in all the other quarrels, Ian could not make out the muddled reasoning by which Sir Peter decided he would prove to Alinor that her husband's plan of yielding Clyro Hill to Llewelyn's vassal was dangerous. |
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"And then," Sir Peter said, his voice wavering, "everything went wrong. Lady Alinor did not come. Instead Lord Gwenwynwyn has brought an army. He sent me a messagesuch a message as I never thought could be addressed to me. I" |
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"Lord!" Owain hurried in carrying his and Geoffrey's armor and weapons. "Lord, no one in the keep knows aught of what has happened! When I came down, all the servants cried out to ask if you were well enough to join the battle. They thought you were confined with sickness and that we were nursing you. They were told not to come up for fear of contagion. They believe that Jamie and the men have gone to fetch your lady to you. The servants and the men-at-arms have no thought of this beast's treachery." |
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"Gently, Owain," Ian soothed. "Do not pass judgment before you know the whole. Arm yourself and Geoffrey and go out upon the walls to see the preparations there. Also see, if you can, what preparations the enemy makes. And tell me, how were you fed and kept in that room if the servants were ignorant of this?" |
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"Three men came once a day armed with pikes. They held us off, two of them, pinning us to the wall, while the third left the food and water and brought in clean chamber pots." |
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"That was why we fell upon you, my lord," Geoffrey |
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